critical governor race coast to coast. and the best political team on television is kicking off the campaign coverage rig now, right here. a big change on craigslist. it pulled it's adult services section. the site simply reads censored. we'll have an update four this morning. an islamic cleric be suspected of inspiring terrorism around the world now sets up shop in caribbean. he's been banned from preaching in mosques but it doesn't stop his dangerous rhetoric. i'll tell you about my trip to confront this guy and why he's considered such a threat. >> that will be interesting. the amfix blog is up and running. the fall election campaign, grab for power on capitol hill could have huge consequences for

everybody, the taxes you pay, health care you and your family receive. >> this weekend we heard a lot more talk, certainly ratcheting up of the rhetoric. in the senate a third of the seats up for grabs this november. in the house every single seat, 435 of them in the hands of voters. the chamber could soon look radically different. republicans sensing blood in the water are looking to take control. there's a new cnn research corporation poll just released about a minute ago showing the gop has a seven point advantage on a generic ballot. if you and your party control the white house, house and senate it's not good. 81% of americans believe the economy is in rough shape. ed henry is at the white house breaking down the president's new economic strategy, but first we're going to kickoff this

entire election season in pennsylvania, with the election express and t.j. holmes who is driving that bus in pittsburgh, pennsylvania. ing right, t.j.? >> reporter: honored to be kicking this thing off for us this week. i'm not getting behind the wheel of that bus. good morning from the backdrop of beautiful downtown pittsburgh over the allegheny river this morning. we're here because as you mentioned at the top it is the unofficial end of summer with labor day but it is the official kickoff to the campaign season and they are kicking off in a major way today. politicians will be at every barbecue fest, every picnic, parade and there will be one here in pittsburgh as well. a lot of shaking of hands and kissing of babies. we're here in western pennsylvania because you talked about 435 seats being up for grabs in the house. well, yes, republicans could take back the house. how would they do it? they will do it by taking back

seats like the one here in western pennsylvania. the third district, a freshman democrat and in a republican district going up against mike kelley. listen to both of them here in these short sound bites and tell me if there's something in there that sounds familiar. >> i think the voters of the district should re-elect me i'm working every day for them when i'm in this office. i'm a person of very high integrity. i'm honest. they know they can trust me. >> why vote for me and not the current congresswoman? everything i say i've done. in the last 23 months we've seen a complete separation from where you came from to where you are now. >> reporter: so, again, really no offense to either one of those candidates, to the voters you hear that stuff all the time. you heard that before. i'm the best candidate. i'll work hard. i'm better than the other guy.

certainly it's the mission of me and my crew to make a commitment not to talk to too many politicians. we're going to talk to the voters and hear about their concerns and maybe the politicians will listen to them this time around. we're just getting started and first live shot of our political coverage. >> got that under your belt. it's interesting, though, because we showed the big picture, 435 seats up for grabs, a lot of unease about the economy. when you break it down to local districts and what these people are fighting for, what are the issues there that are most important to voters in pittsburgh? >> reporter: well, quite honest the number one issue when i got off the plane yesterday was about the steelers quarterback situation. once we got past that issue they wanted to start talking about politics and what they wanted to talk about in particular was a economy. listen to this back and forth between two women who was

volunteering, one republican, one democrat. listen to them going back and forth. they are going at each other but their concerns are the same. >> they want to put government out of their life. we don't want government in our life. turn in your social security check, turn in your medicare. >> they don't think that the people in washington are listening to them. >> their purpose at this disappoint to make our administration look bad. >> people need have hope. they need have the ability to go out and get a job. and they are frightened. it's the economy. some of them are not hindsighter or far sighted enough to realize why we're in the position we were in and everybody said oh, don't blame bush. who else is there to blame. >> they are taking the people's money that in all honesty the people could spend better themselves. >> their purpose is not our country. their purpose is politics.

>> this is the first year that the recurring theme of what people are telling us is that they are scared to death. >> reporter: all right. make no mistake about it, it is all about the economy here. that's all they are talking about here. when you talk about the issues and one more thing of note. here in pennsylvania they have been below the national average in one employment rate in this state for the past year. the problem is in the past year their unemployment rate in the past year has gone up a full percentage point. they are going in the wrong direction which the national average has come down or been flat. they have gone up a full percentage point. the economy, economy, economy is all they are talking about. we'll be talking about it all week. we're just getting started. >> thanks. we'll see you on your ride through the country. >> he says he's not driving. no worries there. after a week of focusing on iraq and the middle east,

president obama starts a big push to get the focus back on the economy. it's the make-or-break issue for democrats. president is hitting the road to spell out his plans for keeping the economy going. ed henry is at the white house to give us a preview. the white house took a lot of shots about what they are doing, what their plan is and are they able tore articulate to it the american people? >> reporter: the president under a lot of pressure. he's going tout milwaukee today and then wednesday he's going to cleveland a very hard hit state in the middle of the country as t.j. was noegt in pennsylvania. same in ohio in terms of it being all about the economy and jobs. the president i'm told by an administration official on wednesday in cleveland will lay out this new economic plan, the centerpiece will be a tax cut, a permanent extension of the tax cut on research and development. $100 billion plan. the president wants to pay for it by closing other tax cuts

loophole. the party chairman previewed it yesterday on one of the sunday shows saying this is a chance for the president to show he's all over the economy. >> this president, his team will be focused on tissue of jobs. as we're adding private-sector jobs every month we have to focus on things that will continue the democratic strategy, has been and it's going to be discussed in more detail later. let's target the tax credits to middle class folks and small businesses. >> reporter: now the administration official tells me it's not just going to be that one tax cut in the president's plan he's also considering other provisions include something more infrastructure spending although the challenge there, of course we've heard with the stimulus some has not panned out. the president is looking at payroll tax holiday. problem and challenge is if it covers too many workers the price tag balloons could go up to something like $300 billion and the administration doesn't

have that much money to work with right now because we're so deep in debt. the president's options here, he wants to jump into the fray but his options are limited. >> he took a lot of heat over the weekend, some from his own party who says the president is waffling, the message is not clear. he's throwing up these ideas. at this point this president was supposed to have this economy turned around. is there a sense of panic there? >> reporter: panic may not be the world inside the white house. deep concern and panic out there on the campaign trail among some democrats. here's why. when you look at our latest poll, after the stimulus passed early last year this was supposed to provide a jolt to the economy. clearly a lot of people not feeling it. look at one poll number here. asked about economic conditions here. americans today 18% saying it's good. 81% saying it's poor. second poll.

current economic conditions compared to two years ago. as bad or worse. 49%. better now but will get worse, 18%. better now and will stay that way, 32%. you see the biggest number being as bad or as worse than two years ago. all that stimulus money was supposed to be spent getting out there, turning this around. clearly it has not worked as well as the administration has wanted. that's why a lot of democrats out there on the trail want the president to do more. we'll jump in with this economic plan. the question is whether congress will have time to pass this new economic plan before they head out on to dpain trail full time. even if they pass it will it have any impact before november? >> a lot of questions. tough times. ed henry, thank you so much. we'll be breaking down the whereas the best political team. tomorrow they are headed to columbus, ohio and wednesday we set up shot in covington, kentucky and thursday

indianapolis. >> more coverage from t.j. and along with him, chief national correspondent john king, senior congressional correspondent dana bash, jessica yellin and senior political analyst gloria borger. >> got everyone covered. >> sounds like a band. new this morning a critical piece of evidence in the bp oil spill has been raised to the surface. the government confiscates this. the failed blowout preventer handed to the fed. bp will drill the last remaining part of the relief well and execute the bottom kill which will seal the ruptured well for good. he moved next door to sarah palin to try to get the soon for his palin biography. he's now packing up and leaving

wasilla. the family extended a fence around their property so he couldn't see into their backyard. >> they called him the creepy guy, right? it is kind of creepy. 6:11. we'll check in with morning headlines with reynolds wolf happen tell me it will be a perfect labor day. >> for much of the nation it's okay. there's a couple of trouble spots. there's a new tropical storm in the gulf of mexico, this is are tropical storm herme. the winds are at 40 miles per hour. gusting stronger. the latest with this storm in terms of its path expected to make landfall as we get early tuesday morning south of the texas-mexico border and it should be at this point a fairly strong tropical storm. coming up we'll talk more about what you can expect around the rest of your nation. things looking good for the eastern third of the country. western half of the great lakes strong thunderstorms. same deal for northern rockies

very dry and warm for your across the desert southwest. your complete forecast coming up in a full minutes. guys, pitch it back to you. thank you. still to come on the most news in our morning are plans in the works to send more military members to afghanistan? we have the latest information coming up. 13 minutes past the hour. t's fi. this malibu is sharp, has great mileage and offers onstar. the hundred thousand mile powertrain warranty caught my attention. it's the chevrolet summer event, which means the only thing left to decide is who drives it home. me! her. me! qualified lessees now get a low mileage lease on this malibu ls, a consumers digest best buy, for around $199 a month. call for details. the switch begins at chevydealer.com.

♪ 15 after the hour, guys. welcome back to "the most news in the morning." just days after the u.s. handed off military operations in iraq u.s. troops were called in to help repel a gang of suicide bombers at an iraqi army base. yesterday's attack killed 12. this assault was rigged to a bus. the baghdad army base is the same one that was attacked in august when 48 people were killed. new developments in the war in afghanistan. nato now considering a plan to send 2,000 additional troops and many of them are likely to be americans. general david petraeus proposed the move calls for 750 military personnel just to train afghan forces. >> we have an a.m. follow up

four. the popular online site craigslist has taken down it's adult services section. this used to be called the erotic services section. they tried to beef it up. if you head there now i want reads censored. the website caving to pressure after a letter from 17 state attorneys general and this exchange between the craigslist founder and our amber lyon. >> reporter: you say you screen these ads. >> i never reported this. >> reporter: why day have the responsibility to report this to you when it's your website. you're posting this online. what your guys doing to protect these girls? >> okay. well critics say the site was contributing to sex trafficking.

leading the charge is connecticut's attorney general. >> right now our focus really is on craigslist, we're taking it one step at a time. we want to verify and confirm craigslist is, in fact, shutting down because our focus really is on law enforcement within our borders. >> it's not clear exactly why craigslist did this and why now. the company says it will release a statement at a later time. >> we'll read that when it comes. still to come on "the most news in the morning", we've seen the pictures of the newly redesigned oval office. looks nice. there's a little mistake. we'll tell you what it is coming up.

minding your business this morning. steven slater no longer works for jet blue. don't be purchase tickets hoping to get waited on by this guy. the airline is confirming they parted ways. slater said he quit. the flight attendant gained national attention when he cursed out passengers, grabbed some beer and slid down the emergency chute. he's due in court tomorrow to face two felony charges. >> you wanted to do that. >> but i wouldn't want to grab any beers and come here. >> it was interesting because there was a big facebook fan page saying let him keep his job. i never got that. who would want that guy in a real emergency, right? >> the oval office got a makeover. there's a little bit of a problem. the new rug which has famous quotes along its edge has one of the authors wrong. "the washington post" reports a quote attributed to martin luther king was borrowed from an 1800 abolitionist who dr. king

would quote. >> will they have a little needle point party and redo it. >> cut out a section of the rug and replace it. coming up next on "the most news in the morning", i go on the trail searching for this guy. this is the hate cleric. i'll tell you why when i come back. [car horn honks] our outback always gets us there... ... sometimes it just takes us a little longer to get back. ♪

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welcome back to "the most news in the morning." this guy has been called the hate clearic, inspiring

terrorists. there's reason to be particularly wary of sheik abdullah el-faisal. the muslim spiritual leader is using the internet preaching to a new audience kinter terrorism officials fear it's too close for comfort. last month i traveled to jamaica to meet him for an interview. little did i know what i was getting into. we came to meet the radical islamic preacher known as jamaican on his own turf. and up a winding road into the jamaican hillside we climb ed. sheik abdullah el-faisal invited us to clear his name from an awful past. we quickly learned sheik abdullah el-faisal had fold us a lie.

>> is the sheik in? >> abdullah el-faisal lured cnn to his island for shakedown. the sheik was asking for $15,000 just to talk. >> why are you charging us so much money just to talk to you? >> most recently arrested in kenya, this 46-year-old jamaican was encouraging young muslims to fight in somalia. he led kenya to deport abdullah el-faisal back to his native jamaica. u.s. intelligence be officials tell cnn they are carefully watching the caribbean and its poverty have long to be thought of a potential new home for a terrorist message. and the sheik has never stopped preaching from internet chat rooms and sending out tapes. the fear is that even isolated down that road in a home that this islamic scholar, this preacher of radical islam could have an effect on the population

here. gather a following and perhaps influence others to follow the paupts of the terrorists who have followed him. >> it's the reason we came to this island to interview abdullah el-faisal. invited by the sheik. when we arrived we were told no interview unless we paid $15,000. cnn does not pay for any interviews. during three telephone conversation and one face to face meeting the sheik did try to explain how he was misinterpreted when he said muslims should fight and kill jews, christians and americans. that would the old sheik. i've reformed since then. >> i'm just asking you do you feel any guilt at all that these men listened to you and then

tried to go out and kill many people. do you feel any guilt that they listened to you? i'm asking you a question. you won't answer that question right now. he just hung up. said he won't do the interview. he won't do the interview unless he gets paid period and he won't answer that question. there may be good reason why the sheik needs to get paid. he's economically and socially isolated. the vast majority of jamaicans are christian. a religion the sheik calls paganism. the islamic council will not allow the sheik to preach in any of jamaica's dozen or so mosques until we renounces. but that has not stopped the sheik from preaching. in homes around jamaica gathering followers especially over the internet. listen to this. >> my brother, it will rule

america. >> it is the sheik in an internet forum the end of july titled the battle of washington. he declares sh ira law. two reasons why officials concerned. quotes like that can be interpreted. the sheik has influenced other people. secondly lots of concern for a long time about the caribbean acnew home for jihadist messages and this guy set up base there is one more reason that they are very worried about it. >> what is his status in jamaica now? >> he's a free jamaican citizen. he's land locked because no british carrier will fly him and no u.s. carrier will fly him.

it's the reason why kenya had to charter a jet to get him back to jamaica. he is free to preach there in his houses. the islamic community, the established islamic community won't let him in a mosque. >> that's telling. great investigation. thanks, drew. abdullah el-faisal not alone. make sure to watch the special, osama bin laden's new jihadist, saturday september 11th at 8:00 p.m. eastern. meanwhile 31 minutes past the hour right now on this labor day. we check your top stories. it's the end of summer unofficially. beginning of the fall campaign season officially if you ask those in washington. dozens of seats up for grabs in the senate. hundreds more in the house. all the house seats are up. a shift in the balance of power could change how the government deals with the economy, with jobs, taxes, health care. we'll have all the coverage this morning from the best political

team on television. president obama will spend part of this labor day talk up new economic policies. trying to boost the chance of democratic candidates in the crucial mid-term elections. the president making his pitch in milwaukee, again in cleveland on wednesday. the economy is number one with the voters. the latest cnn poll shows eight oust ten americans believe economic conditions are poor. >> as many as 100 guatemalans could be dead buried under heavy mud after a massive landslide. 37 people were killed when rains cause ad hillside to collapse along a major highway. 10,000 people have been evacuated, most living in shelters. 33 chilean miners starting their second month under the ground. they have been under the earth for 32 days. "the washington post" reporting the miners and the families angry with chilean officials for allegedly sensoring letters heading in to the mine claiming they are only delivering ones

with positive messages. >> chilean officials are launching a third rescue operation using an oil drill. the men are expected to be trapped until late november or early december. there's a bright spot in all of this. one miner who is also a father to be will finally be getting to see new pictures of his unborn daughter. >> reporter: the ultrasound shows a baby girl, nestling in her mother's womb. a grainy video shows a miner father trapped far underground. >> it doesn't matter. >> reporter: elizabeth is due in less than two weeks. the scan confirms her and her husband are having a girl. the very next day the mine where he was working caved in. >> translator: my world just collapsed. i couldn't react.

i just cried and cried. >> reporter: but her husband and his 32 comrades are alive. >> translator: i've been talking to her and telling her daddy is okay. i can't cry because if i did the baby would feel everything. >> reporter:ing tonight, her father just came from the mine. he's carrying a letter sent up from the depths of the earth. before the accident the couple decided to name their daughter catalina. but if he survives against the odds she's been thinking. he's come up with a better name. in spanish, it means hope. >> translator: first because we never lost hope. second because it's the name of the camp where the families are

living. and third, because the 33 miners never lost hope either. >> reporter: rescue is expected to take up to four months. no chance that he'll be back to the surface for the birth. so a relative plans to video the birth. >> translator: we have to record the birth in great detail as well as what happens to my baby day-by-day. >> reporter: the couple already has two boys, 5 and 9. they miss their dad. be well daddy, i hope they send you good food. sleep well. steven says. i love you a lot and i hope nothing bad happens to you in the mine. jean pierre says. it's tough being apart but at least it's not forever.

>> translator: maybe he won't be there for the birth, but he'll be here to see her growing up. >> reporter: some day soon they will meet in person. the baby and the ultrasound and the miner in a grainy video. this story just tugs at the heart strings because first of all imagine bringing a baby into the world let alone knowing he's underground. still day live but a lot of uncertainty when he'll get out and if everybody will make it okay. >> just thinking of those guys. all day yesterday freaks me out. >> in beginning we talked about them being upset about possibly sensoring some of the letters being sent down there. when we talked to an expert on mines he said that they have to believe that everything good is -- they have to have a reason to continue on but that you have to be straight with them as

well. they can't feel like they are not getting information. >> this will be a big story when they all come out and really hear how much they enjoyed each other's company for so long. >> i'm sure they will be so relie relieved. 37 minutes past the hour. economy and jobs. issue number one. we'll talk to "business week" about what we should do next as we saw from the polling just out 30 minutes ago, 81% of the country thinks the economy is in poor shape. but, will any of these proposals being pitched by the white house and others turn things around? we're going to get some analysis coming up. 37 minutes past the hour. the shipping industry in norway, and the rubber industry, in south america? at t. rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex global economy. it's just one reason 75% of our mutual funds beat their 10-year lipper average. t. rowe price. invest with confidence.

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40 minutes past the hour. happy labor day. we're talking numbers today. a lot of people have to grumble if they have to work. this year perm happy if they have jobs. it's an all out political fight and the battleground is the economy. take a look at these new numbers. we take a look apartment how people view economic conditions

today. only 18% polled said they felt the conditions were good. 81% of americans say that economic conditions are poor. the president will unveil a new economic plan this week beginning with the labor day event in milwaukee. joining us now, jim ellis from bloomberg "business week" as well as lex harris. i want to start with you about this discontent in numbers. 81% of people poll this way and we saw that friday number come you want, unemployment at 9.6%. an uptick. what do we do? >> the numbers blow me away. it's funny because when numbers came up friday there was a huge sigh of relief from financial markets. >> private sect josh anticipateded jobs. >> exactly. for several months in a row there was a few good signs, long term unemployment came down a little bit. but you do see sort of predictable scramble right now

with, there was talk a few months ago we're not doing any more stimulus. now the drum beat is starting for stimulus three, perhaps. what makes sense? if we spend money if the stimulus is happening it's in the form of what, help to business, tax breaks? >> in the form of help the businesses. but the key there is we have to do it in a way that makes sense. we spent a lot of money. we already spent over 800 billion on stimulus. you'll get declining returns. they are talking about finding a way to make permanent the research and development credit. that's a credit, a tax credit that businesses get for making new investments in technology and processes that are going to create jobs in the future. that a good thing. probably does make sense to do it. the issue is that we've had already credits since like 1981, but it keeps getting turned off. this would make it permanent and allow businesses to actually say this is a long term, you know, sort of tax credit and therefore

i'll make long term decisions that will result in new jobs. >> speaking of jobs, when we fwakt on this labor day there's a lot of fear about the number 9.6% because the indications say at this point eight years to get back where the labor market was even before the recession hit. so what does it take right now to get businesses to hire, for people to actually be able to get off of the long term unemployment and get back to working? >> i don't think anyone knows the exact answer. all the forecasts are is that unemployment will stay a lot higher for a lot longer than anyone thought. that's why you're getting a lot of people calling for more spending, more tax cuts and it's funny to me how the debate has shifted from -- you know if there was this struggle between tax cuts and spending, tax cuts is ruling the day. >> that's interesting because there are some democrats coming out saying they are against letting the bush tax cuts expire for the wealthiest earners, households over $250,000.

will we see that rolled back or what will we see as we head into november. >> at that lot will depend on how strong they feel in november. if people in congress feel they are vulnerable they will support having those extended. >> mark sandy said it's not a good time to allow any tax cuts expire. how big of a difference would it make to allow the bush tax cuts stay in place? >> it won't make a lot of difference, especially for the top 3% or 4% where the real debate is. i think the top 3% or 4% of income earners, a lot of people spend time saying we ought to deal with the wealthy. that's not the real issue. real issue is finding a way to bring back u.s. competitiveness where the groept has shifted overseas to place like india, china, a sha and brazil. if we can't do that. what we're doing now is fiddling around the margins.

>> what's the answer? there's been a lot of criticism on this administration for not doing nor adjust to this new economy, new technologies, green technologies that many thought were in the plan for the stimulus. >> one of the best criticisms came out about a month ago from a money manager from pimco who said we're throwing money down the economic toilet if other trying to inflate consumption. we need to invest in education, clean technologies. the president fwaux it a lot. very tough to push through right now in this environment. >> one of the big problems with that is that those are returns that we're going to get in future years. they won't happen by november and washington works on the calendar of the election cycle. >> eight weeks out from the election and 81% of the people say the economy is in poor shape. thanks to both of you for being with us. right now we're going to send it back to drew.

good discussion. 45 past the hour. next, reynolds wolf in for rob. he'll have the morning's travel forecast right after this break. in ten minutes, no lawyers. where banks competed to save me a boatload of money

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welcome back to cnn "american morning." "the most news in the morning." we have a full plate starting with this system. take a look. this is tropical storm hermine. we're in the hs. deep convection developing in

parts of the gulf of mexico. here's the yucatan peninsula. the latest path we have shows possibly making landfall early tuesday morning south of the texas border, in fact very close to the mexican-texas border. possibly heavy rain maker into wednesday and thursday snoerl and eventually into north texas. for the rest of the country, heavy rainfall in the western great lakes. also severe storms are a possibility by late afternoon as this area of low pressure drifts its way to the east. to the eastern seaboard and for much southeast pretty dry conditions, scattered showers possible for parts of the central and south florida. also very dry out west. in terms of your temperatures, expect your highs to be pretty warm. dallas 94 degrees. 89 in houston. 76 in denver. 65 in billings. high in new york 82 degrees. speaking of the big apple take a look at this wonderful shot we have. the sun is coming out over one of the finest cities in america.

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. > welcome to "the most news in the morning." nearly half of all marriages end in divorce in the u.s. >> in japan, however, divorce is also on the rise but they are finding an interest wag to mark the end of an unhappy marriage with a highly symbolic ceremony. you think you spent enough money for the wedding.

you want to spend more to mark tends of it. here's how people say i don't japanese style. a diamond and platinum wedding ring symbolizing eight years of this couple's marriage. gone in an increasingly popular ritual known in japan known as a divorce ceremony. husband no longer. it marks the end of this phase of our lives he says. the beginning was in 2002. they had a child, built a life together but eventually grew apart. >> translator: a part of me is expecting i'll feel much better after this. i've had enough sadness. >> the divorce ceremony begins with a silent and solemn procession through the streets of tokyo, two rickshaws carrying man and woman. inside this shabby building a symbolic ceremony before witnesses not to join together

but to break apart. the diamond and platinum ring takes several hard hits before it's finally cracked. walking to the reception the former bride is all smiles. >> translator: i feel relieved after i smashed the ring i feel free. the feeling is mutual tells me. i feel better than before we did this. it's over. >> so much of the ceremony is filled with symbolism. the couple at the reception sits back-to-back at separate tables signifying their separate lives. the party favors are chop sticks. no chicken dance but a musician singing about splitting up. bizarre, no doubt. but a sign of the times in japan. one in four marriages now end up in divorce but it's still a cultural taboo.

this ceremony which only cost about $600 helps some japanese come to grips with the country's changing social norms say divorce ceremony planner. there's no mistaking that divorce is a sad process he says, but i believe that by declaring your new start in life in front of your friend, relatives and family you draw a clear line. it helps emotionally. he says his business is booming. he's gotten 1,000 calls and the ceremoniesing booked for weeks. as far as this couple they say their thanks and father wells and walk off separately ever after. well we may think that's crazy. they may think a jerry springer episode is crazy. who knows. wow. >> they didn't get smashed sort of turn into an oval. at least they seemed civil which is good news because they have a kid together.

>> yeah. maybe they go with the fish can entertain at the kids' birthday party. remember that divorce ceremony where you hired that band, he was great. what ethic. >> volume price of $600. we'll take a break and be back in two minutes.

happy labor day to you. it's monday, september 6th. glad you're with us on this "american morning." i'm kiran chetry. >> john roberts is off this morning. we have so much to talk about. the political season is in full swing. labor day bringing the unofficial end to summer to white shoes and a big push towards mid-term elections. dozens of seats up for the senate. all the house seats are being hotly contested. critical governor races too

coast to coast. best political team on television kick off the campaign coverage in high gear. >> democrats are desperate to keep control of congress. president obama hits the road this week to focus on the economy and try to reassure voters. a new cnn poll suggests the president has his work cut out for him. eight in ten americans when polled say they believe the economy is in poor shape. we're live at the white house with ed henry just ahead. a key piece to the puzzle in fed investigators. the failed blowout preventer pulled out of the gulf by the weekend. fbi agents were on the boot. a new blowout preventer replacing it which could be sealed for good soon. also this morning the fall campaign in full swing. >> balance of power up for grabs on capitol hill. consequences for you, your job, the taxes you pay, health care you receive and your family. >> that's right. when you take a look at it in the senate 37 seats up for grabs right now in november and in the house every single seat, 435 of

them in the hands of voters. the chamber could soon look radically different. republicans are looking to take control and there's a new cnn research corporation poll just released that backs up a poll earlier in the week that was pretty stunning from gallop that says they have a major advantage, cnn's polling showing a generic republican would win 52% against a generic democrat 45%. no matter which party you are in or in favor of, the poll is finding that 81% of us believe the economy is in rough shape. you didn't need a poll to tell us. we have the best political team on television. ed henry is at the white house breaking down the president's new economic strategy. first we're going to go t.j. holmes with the cnn election express. he's in pittsburgh, pennsylvania this morning. t.j. following one particular race there that could be a key to these mid-terms.

>> reporter: good morning, guys. welcome to a beautiful backdrop of pittsburgh, pennsylvania. the sun starting to come up behind me over the allegheny river. we're here because of a particular race that's happening here in western pennsylvania. we talk about 435 seats up for grabs. sure. but only a handful are really considered to be in contention. one of them in particular that republicans are targeting that could help them take back the house is in the third district where there's a freshman democrat who is trying to hold on to that seat and she's trying to hold on in what's really a republican district. leapt me hear from both of them the two candidates then we'll talk more about what the people want to hear about. >> i think the voters of the district should re-elect me because i'm working every day for them when i'm in this office. i'm a person of very high integrity. i'm honest. >> why would youote for me and not the current congresswoman? everything i say i've done. everything i say i mean. i think over the period now of

the last 20 months we've seen a complete separation from where you came from as to where you are now. >> reporter: quite frankly, you have heard a lot of that stuff before. you're going to hear more of it during the campaign season. labor day is the unofficial end of summer but the official kickoff to the campaign season and this is a very important district. that is how republicans could possibly win not by just looking at the whole 435 but smaller races, maybe in some of your own neighborhoods, your own backyards that are taking place and are targeting these particular races and particular democrats to try to take back the house. they need to get around 40 seats to swap hands for republicans to take over. that is certainly possible, don't know how likely but certainly possible right now. >> a lot of these local municipalities are talking about how it's getting in ting increa

nasty. what are the issue? >> reporter: key issues and polls flect this, republicans are fired up more than democrats. that's a big part of the effort. democrats will try to fire up their base even more so. you talk to people here like we did in pittsburgh. you go to one of these big fairs you see over the labor day holiday. you hear a wide range of things that they are concerned about. >> when you get a poll that suggests that what 25% of people think that their president is a muslim, obviously they are smart enough to know that's not true and to me that just says that people are operating out of emotions. >> totally out of touch in what's going on in rural america. >> i wish people would be more patient because it does take time to come out of the bad recession that we were in. >> then you start thinking pay cuts. how much money they make a year is ridiculous for what little

work they do and for how much vacation they have in the summer. it's unfair. >> i think the whole obama administration along with every member in congress should be voted out. >> i've gone back and forth between democrats and republicans. >> we're talking about washington. always going to be the same. >>it's going to be the same old politics. >> reporter: now you hear a wide range there. i mean even from the topic of muslims, possibility of the president acmuslim. you'll hear about the economy. you certainly hear the theme of being anti-washington right now. people are sick and tired of washington all together. so, that's just a sample. just a start. we're going to be out on the road all week. we're starting here in pennsylvania heading over to ohio, then indianapolis. we're just getting started.

we are rolling on. >> all right, t.j., thanks a lot. you are, indeed rolling on. thanks. the white house has taken a lot of heat over the state of the economy. this week president obama will go on the offensive unveiling new plans to spur the economy and hopefully create more jobs. it's make-or-break issue for democrats in the mid-term elections and the president has a lot of work to do. ed henry is live at the white house. ed, what can we expect from the president this week? >> reporter: good morning. today he's going to milwaukee to celebrate labor day at aunt none event. wednesday is the day to watch. he'll be in cleveland. very hard hit city and in a state where ohio that t.j. was talking, employment bad. the president will use that venue then to layout sort avenue economic plan. i'm told by administration officials the centerpiece will be a permanent extension of the tax credit on research and development for businesses. that essentially is an effort to try to get them to hire more

people n-vest more in their companies, and this all was previewed yesterday by the democratic party chairman tim kai kaine. >> this president his team will fob kusd on tissue of jobs, but as we're adding private-sector jobs now every month we just have to focus on things that will continue that, the democratic strategy has been and it's going to be discussed in more detail later, let's target the tax credits to middle class folks and the small businesses. >> reporter: the challenge for the administration, of course, is people across the country have heard this before going back to the stimulus debate. now i'm told by administration official once again as part of the president's economic plan they are thinking about adding more infrastructure spending. that was talked about last year. south has not panned out. they are also talking about a payroll tax holiday for people but the problem they are finding behind-the-scenes is how many workers is this going cover? the more you add the more the

price tag goes up, one proposal floating around is a $300 billion tax cut. the problem for the white house they don't have that kind of money right now since we're so deep in debt. president's options even as he tries to roll out this plan pretty small right now. >> it's interesting there were some criticism, john mccain on the sunday shows called at it death bed conversion about some of these new changes that the president was putting forth. has some of this been in the works or is this audible as some have been saying about the new plan, the stimulus that's not being called a stimulus? >> i think it is a little bit of an audible. they've tried a lot of other options and it hasn't panned out. look at the stimulus. it was advertised as something that would provide a yolt to the economy. this was billed as recovery summer by this white house and that hasn't panned out. they were saying stimulus was going to pay off now. look at our most recent poll. we asked about economic conditions today. 18% say it's good.

81 pars whopping 81% say it's poor. the other important poll question to take a look at is this one about current economic conditions compared to two years ago. as bad or worse 49%. better now but will get worse. 18%. better now and will stay that way 32%. that biggest number as bad or worse as it was two years ago, what's happened between then and now this massive stimulus plan that was supposed to change a lot of this american people by and large are not feeling a recovery. hasn't trickled down to them. in terms of the president's new economic plan it's not even clear that fellow congressional democrats on the hill for the president can really get this done. such a narrow window to pass this economic legislation because after a couple of weeks they will go right back to the campaign trail full time. very narrow window to get this done. not clear whether there's any impact on what the president is talking about now between now and november. >> if it does pass will it do

anything in that short amount of time when you talk about research and development break. it takes time for these companies to put money into the pipeline if they were to get it. this administration's options are very limiteded at this late date. >> ed henry live this morning. thanks. also coming up in 20 minutes here comes the tea party. jim acosta is kicking off a new report on the tea party. we'll check in with jim, some have been asking are republicans having buyers remorse by choosing her as candidate. the polls are tied up. 10 after the hour. we'll get a check on the morning's weather headlines. reynolds wolf is down in atlanta. hi, reynolds, looking good. >> reporter: i got to until our weather is not looking very good in the tropics. we got rid of earl. now another storm. tropical storm hermine. yes. we're on to the hs in the

alphabet. there it is. you see that purple spot. that convection is moving and chugging its way to the north. it could possibly make landfall somewhere very close to the texas-mexico border. we'll talk more about that soon. not have a great deal of time to intensify but a huge rain maker, potential flooding for central and southern texas. we have tons of stuff to talk about. it's coming your way straight ahead. sounds good. happy labor day, reynolds. next on the "the most news in the morning", the blow-out preventer is off the ocean floor. could this hold the key to fining out what happened. [ george ] this is state farm pocket agent larissa buerano.

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bp could soon move ahead with the completion of its relief well in the gulf of mexico this week once and for all. sealing off that biggest oil spill in history. the failed blowout preventer sitting on top of that well has been recovered sean heading to a nasa facility in new orleans. >> that's right. investigators there will try to answer one critical question, exactly how did it fail. we have the professor from petroleum of science from university of houston. thanks for being here. so we know it's going to this nasa facility. they are going to be trying to do forensics on it, i guess. for the lay person what will they be trying to figure out and how will the broken blowout preventer assist them in that? >> there's a number of key things they will look at. the angulars will be one of the first things they will be

looking at. >> what is that? >> they are sort of like large doughnuts that grip the drill bit or the drill pipe when you're drilling it's the way we control, it's called the angular preventers. we use them when we do normal drilling processes so they can replace them when they wear out. they may have been worn out a little bit during some of the critical tests. they want to look at that. they will also be looking at all the hydraulic lines, accumulators that forced the rams closed and a lot of the mechanical parts of that nature and then they will be looking at the control panels in great detail, there's two control panels up in the lower marine riser package, the upper part of the blowout preventer. >> the science is one thing trying to figure out what happened but the other part of this story is this thing is now in the possession of the department of justice, the fbi

was on board that boat yesterday as it came up taking pictures. this is a criminal investigation. and from your expert point of view will this have evidence that something deliberately went wrong or some safety mechanism was deliberately overridden by bp to force this thing to blow? >> it's always possible that something was overridden in part of the controls. i doubt any of the mechanical parts. but there may have been some control components that have been altered. but the main reason they are looking at it really closely is to make sure no one tries to fix anything or change anything. >> right. >> and make sure that when they find out what did happen they know that it's in its natural or original state and not an altered state and they are just being careful, i think. i mean i don't really think that anything of that nature happened. but if it did, you need to make sure that it's preserved and not

altered between when you get it out of the water whan inspect it. >> let's show animation so people can get an idea of what should happen when this blowout preventer works properly. it gates signal of that high pressure it can be manually turned off or something called the dead man switch, right. here we see a functioning blowout preventer and if it's working properly, you see the oil gushing through. as you described those agulars come in able to choke off the flow of oil. one of the questions being batted around, i guess, is whether or not it was something as simple as a battery being low or dead from that, for that dead man switch which is supposed to be the last thing that works if all else fails. if it comes down to that isn't it quite shocking they have all of this technology in place, such a complicated operation in place it could come down to a

dead battery? >> yeah, that would be a very unfortunate thing. ouf course, they will be looking at the batteries. i think they already know the batteries were at least low if not, in fact, dead. the other thing is the hydraulics have pressure accumulators and if they were leak being they wouldn't have had the pressure to force the rams to close on the pipe. what you were showing was actual italy blowout preventer part of the blowout presenter stack, the lower part of the stack, and what you saw at the bottom there was a pipe ram and then you had a blind sheer ram that cut the pipe. those things are supposed to work. it takes a lot of pressure to do it. of course if the battery is weak and if the pressure and accumulators that force these things close, then it's not going to work very well. and that may be what happened. but before the blowout preventer

failed they were having trouble in the angular preventers above that that were in the marine package that may have had something to do with when they tested the negative test, tested to see if the cement was working they didn't get the appropriate readings. >> i think at the end of this, whether it's a criminal case or not, we are going to find out a lot of things going forward and what maybe could prevent this in the future. that's the big hope of people like you who study the oil industry. >> absolutely. >> all right. >> professor, thanks so much for being with us this morning. coming up next on the "the most news in the morning", the earthquake that hit in new zealand. incredible pictures of how powerful and how much damage may have been done. we'll have the latest coming up.

welcome to progressive. nice calculator. i'm just trying to save money on my car insurance. you know, with progressive, you get the option to name your price. is that even possible? uh, absolutely. trade? and i still get great service? more like super great. oh, you have a message. "hello." calculator humor. i'll be here all week. i will -- that was my schedule. the freedom to name your price. now, that's progressive. call or click today.

also new this morning, you know, this would have been a major huge story if people were killed. but apparently new zealand has done a pretty good job with earthquake preparedness. a state of emergency extended in christchurch, new zealand until wednesday. a powerful quake, 7.2. government officials report nearly 5,000 claims for property damages. they say that the residents of the second largest city are

being warned to boil their water. schools are closed. authorities say there's likelihood of after shocks as powerful as 6.0. this was strongest earthquake and most damaging one they've seen there in some 80 years. they have been guesting a nod to all the retrofitting of the strength of the buildings. a little bit of a miracle in some case people survived this. >> the earth moved 11 feet. >> then there were literal lly fissures so wide. it's mazing to look at and see the earth was that powerful. i guess man was able to conquer it in that case. >> i guess. 7.2. >> coming up on the "the most news in the morning", speaking of women, she is take on senate majority leader harry reid. jim acosta talks to the republican nominee tea party favorite sharon yengle next.

♪ 27 minutes past the hour. your top stories a couple minutes away. an a.m. original. with labor day bringing the end of summer today we're kick off the fall political season with a new series make room for the tea party. >> the latest cnn corporation research poll show voters are mixed on this political movement. 40% say they've negative opinion. 36% have a positive view of the tea party. today we're looking at a big gamble where else, nevada. jim acosta is joining us live with that story. jim, good morning. >> reporter: good morning. there's doubt that the tea party is on a roll. but there's one big question facing this new political movement and that is whether these tea party contenders are too conservative to beat their

democratic opponents. it is a question that has dogged the campaign of nevada's sharon angle. >> let's take our government back. >> reporter: sharon angle just might be the tea party's biggest gamble yet. a conservative former state lawmaker in nevada and grandmother who doesn't mind hopping on the back of a harly and also has a tendency to shoot from the lip. >> he's been water boarding our economy for over a year now. >> reporter: with rhetoric like that she came out move to where and snatched up the endorsements of tea party leaders and won the republican nomination in the race for u.s. senate. her next opponent the gop's prime target. one of the most powerful democrats in washington senate majority leader harry reid. will you be a tea party senator in the senate? >> i don't know what that means. i'll be a main stream senator. >> reporter: democrats say angle is far from mainstream pointing

to her past calls to dramatically reduce the size of the federal government by getting rid of the departments of education and energy, the epa and irs. she's also made some white hot comments on talk radio. >> if this congress keeps going the way it is people are really looking towards those second amendment remedies. they are saying my goodness what can we do to turn this country around. the first thing they need to do is take harry reid out. >> reporter: what was that about? >> those are not the issues that people are concerned about. they are concerned about our homes, economy, our jobs. >> reporter: in another interview she agreed there are domestic enemies in the government. we have home born, home grown enemies in our system. we have some of them in the walls of the senate and congress. >> think you're right. >> reporter: do you feel there are domestic enemies in the congress. >> the larger focus on that

conversation is what happened domestically here in our country for the last 18 months. >> reporter: do you feel the president and harry reid are enemies of the state. >> don't think anybody mentioned any names during that conversation. >> reporter: those are policies. >> those weren't my words. >> we need to phase medicare and social security out. >> reporter: angle's comments on social security star in reid's ads. she accuses reid of taking her oust context. >> as i speak, sometimes when you pick out words they are not the best words that you could have used. >> reporter: many in her own party worry an salary risky bet. a recent poll found 71% of nevada republicans prefer a different candidate. good thing for angle says las vegas political columnist, reid is just as unpopular. >> hooer reid is the most negatively viewed person in this state and there's a hardened opposition to him. i think sharon angle could be

arrested on a felony tomorrow and still get 40% of the vote. >> reporter: we caught up with senator reid who stands bipartisan his ads that paint angle as extreme. >> she says that a lot of what she said was taken out of context. what is your response to that? >> it's a little hard to take out of context when somebody says they want to phase out social security, get rid of medicare. i don't think you run from what you say and what you do. >> reporter: a political wild card in the tea party's rise to power, sharon angle has two more months to convince vote towers deal her in. now angle's campaign has spent the last couple of months trying to soften her image. they got her appearing in ads showing her support for social security and spending a lot of time these days meeting with veterans groups. when talk with the harry reid group, this is the be republican candidate they want to face this fall out of all the republicans who are on the ballot, sharon

angle is the one they want to take on this november. and there's lots of tea party candidates out there all across this country and a lot of these races are taking shape much in the same way. >> you have to ask yourself, you know, did the tea party do more harm than good for republicans in that state. when you see that poll 71% says they prefer another candidate that's shock. >> reporter: it is. ate question of buyer's remorse. i asked sharon angle, you know there's a lot of sentiment perhaps you were not the best candidate on this ballot and are republicans feeling buyer's remorse. not buyer's remorse there's a lot of anxiety out there and they are not happy with any of the candidate on the ballot. just to be fair to sharon angle, when you look at that same poll democrats are just as uncomfortable with harry reid. plenty of democrats in nevada would like to see somebody else on the blapt besides harry reid. it's kind of a wash for both. >> she's going to go after a pro who used to taking down opponents. he's got that group together

that's going to able to dodge and weave like i don't think she knows what's coming. >> reporter: one quick factoid. harry reid won his first election by 435 votes. he said in his event that we were out watching in nevada that he's an expert in close elections. so they feel like they got a game plan in place where they can eke out another one over sharon angle. >> interest that the majority leader is in such a tight spot. >> reporter: absolutely. >> jim, fascinating stuff. we'll check in with you tomorrow. we'll head to utah and take a look at candidate mike lee. we'll take a look at this race, the tea party's platform and what it means. 33 minutes now past thundershower. this morning's top stories, president obama is hitting the road again today delivering a labor day speech. this one in milwaukee. the white house will spend the week responding to what angry voters, including those in nevada, especially those in swing states are demanding more

presidential focus on the economy. the president will give a similar speech in cleveland on wednesday. nato is considering a plan to send in 2,000 additional troops to afghanistan. many of them will likely be americans. general david petraeus proposed the move to nato officials. it calls for 750 military personnel just to train afghan force. thousands of indonesians protesting peacefully outside of the u.s. embassy. they are upset about a florida church's plan to ban copies of the koran on september 11th. the church in gainesville is going narcotic anniversary of the september 11th attacks. he's been called the hate cleric accused of c ed of inspi high-profile terrorists. there's a real danger surrounding sheik abdullah

el-faisal. his vaereach is on the internet. >> he's preaching to a vast new audience. last month i traveled to jamaica to meet this guy at his request for an interview. i had no idea what i was about to encounter. we came to meet the radical islamic preacher known as the jamaican on his own turf. and up a winding road into the jamaican hillside we climbed. >> we think this is it. >> where sheik abdullah el-faisal invited us to clear his name from an awful past. we quickly learned that sheik abdullah el-faisal told us a lie. >> is the sheik in? >> no. >> can you tell us where he is. >> he's not here yet. designee lured cnn to his island as part of a shakedown. cnn does not pay for interviews.

the sheik was asking for $15,000 just to talk. >> why are you charging us so much money just to talk to you? most recently arrested in kenya, authorities say this 46-year-old jamaican was encouraging young muslims to fight in somalia. his arrests sparked riots leading to five dead and leading kenya to deport abdullah el-faisal back to his native jamaica. u.s. intelligence officials and jamaica's justice ministry tells cnn they are carefully watching. the caribbean and interests poverty has long been thought a potential new home for a terrorist message. and the sheik has never stopped preaching. through internet chat rooms and sending out tapes. the fear is that even isolated down that road in a home that this islamic scholar, this preacher of radical islam could have an effect on the population here, gather a following and perhaps influence others to follow the paths of the terrorist whose have followed

him. it's the reason we came to this island to interview abdullah el-faisal. invited by the sheik himself who promised he would explain himself once we arrived. once we arrived his agent explained there would be no interview unless we paid $15,000. cnn does not pay for any interviews. during three telephone conversations, and one face to face meeting, the sheik did try to explain how he was misinterpreted. when he said muslims should fight and kill jews, christian, americans and hindus. that was the old sheik he told me. i've reformed since then. i'm just asking you do you feel any guilt at all that these men listened to you and then went out and tried to kill people and some of them did kill people? they listened to many clerics. do you feel any guilt that they listened to you? i'm asking you a question. so you will not answer that

question right now. he just hung up. he says he won't do the interview. he won't do the interview unless he gets paid period. and he won't answer that question. there may be good reason why the sheik needs to be paid. he's economically and socially isolated here. the vast majority of jamaicans are christian. a religion the sheik calls paganism. the islamic council will not allow the sheik to preach in any of jamaica's dozen or so mosques until he denounces his radical teaches. >> i've not cell phone him not even for a minute since his return to jamaica. >> but that has not stopped the sheik from preaching in homes around gentleman may characters gathering followers and especially over the internet. listen to this. >> my good is not obama, my dean an our sharia. >> a sheik in july titled the

bat of washington. he declares sharia law will one day rule this country if muslims make sacrifices. >> if we desire to conquer that white house we need to be people that desire hardship. we'll see the imam established in the white house. >>it's the interpretation of how these messages are released. counterterrorism officials are released that the sheik is lying. >> when he says he's reformed. >> he won't say to it your face. he believes he was misinterpreted. he told people in england go out and kill jews, kill hindus, i can christians. >> you talk about jamaica being a very large christian nation. how much support does he have? how many followers does he have in person? >> it's very hard to tell because he just got back there in january. he clearly has a following, the islamic society or the group of

mosques believe that they have seen some of their members fleeing to go to this guy, and to worship in various houses and places where he's free to meet other people. so they are concerned about the fact that he may have some kind of influence on young, particularly young muslims in jamaica who are getting their news off the internet and not getting a clear picture what islam was about. >> twhafs rioting about? >> that was in jean. he was, according to jean he was telling people who were in jean to go out and fight for muslims in somalia when they kicked him out. kenya basically kicked him out of the country. rioting developed from his followers. >> they chartered a flight to gentleman make okay. he's looked now. he is although free to travel if he can find anybody to fly him. good luck with that. >> great piece. we'll talk more about this

coming up as well. this week kicks off two months sprint towards election day a period of campaigning that's shaping up to be one of the most intense in years. how to overcome voter anxiety, anger and apathy. we'll talk to be leslie sanchez about it. copd doesn't just make it hard to breathe... it makes it hard to do a lot of things. and i'm a guy who likes to go exploring ... get my hands dirty... and try new things. so i asked my doctor if spiriva could help me breathe better. spiriva is the only once-daily inhaled maintenance treatment for both forms of copd... which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. spiriva keeps my airways open... to help me breathe better for a full 24 hours. and it's not a steroid. spiriva does not replace fast acting inhalers for sudden symptoms. stop taking spiriva and call your doctor right away if your breathing suddenly worsens, your throat or tongue swells, you get hives, have vision changes or eye pain...

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♪ a lot of us are thinking about barbecue, burgers, kicking back on this labor day. politicians not so much. this start of th fal wing support for democrats really falling off the map. so what's going happen to the balance of power on capitol hill and what does it mean for us, for our jobs, the economy, the health care. for more i'm joined by republican strategist leslie sanchez, democratic strategist kiki mclean, both in washington. guys, to be fair i flipped a coin to decide who will go first.

kiki, you're it. >> happy labor day to you and all the working men and women in our country. >> let's hope there's more of them next labor day. but, we've been talking a lot about politic this morning and the president and i want does seem like the democrats are just kind of making up this as they go trying to deal with some very bad poll numbers and very bad economic numbers. can you honestly say that they are floundering at this point? >> no. i don't think they are floundering. we're swimming upstream p.m. eight week tomorrow. eight weeks between now and election day. a lot can happen. we're swimming upstream for a couple of reasons. the party in power historically is more likely to lose seats. number two, the president and our political members of congress have actually spent a lot of their political capital to make change happen. around health care. around financial regulatory reform. it means it's really stirred up the dust. there's people engaged in that want debate. number three let's be honest. we got a recovery that's

sluggish and slow and hard to recognize that it's evening happening. too many people are out of work. what does that mean? i think this means these races are very individualized and very local. look at the story this morning about sharon angle and harry reid. when people look at these races two individuals and what they represent and what they say they are going to do people will vote based on that. we're democrats and we're swimming upstream. >> leslie that want seems to be the strategy, make it local, may no attention what we did in washington for the last 19 months. as if we don't have a television or an internet. the reality we have to understand is this is a highly charged but an am pl it's ampli. you know you see the balance of power possibly shift to republicans now it's a free for all. you're hearing numbers as high as 47. the change is two things.

one frustration with washington. this is the year of the newcomer, gallop pointed to that. that's why you're seeing the resurgence of april lot of very interesting candidates on the right, women, diversity. even the tea party candidates. the second part is the president's response to the economic crisis. those economic numbers are driving this and people feel this is their first chance, post-2008 to get engaged. >> i want to feel good about the direction of the country, where things are going and kiki, i don't think we're getting that yet. eight weeks is not enough to turn that around. so when you're talking to people who are unemployed and looking for anybody with an answer, i don't think we're getting it from the democrats or the republicans. >> you know, you raise something interesting here. is this an anti-democratic wave. i don't think so. it anti-obama. your own poll shows it's really most voters are saying it's not to send a message to the president. what you're seeing is

anti-incumbency. people in congress and people in elected office are not doing enough. i would suggest the most endangered incumbent is boehner. as leslie points out people who have not been involved in the republican party before now winning these primaries and if any of them win their seats when they come to washington as a new caucus they don't want an establishment leader like john boehner. republicans were the stewards of fiscal responsibility. a lot of people were frustrated. you're seeing that now concerns about deficits, uncontrolled spending. they want fiscal restraint the same way families are doing at home tightening their belts. they want to see washington do the same. >> leslie, let me ask you this, the mandate, we're talking about possibly now in political circles that president obama overreached his mandate. maybe there was not a mandate

other than just don't be george bush. maybe we didn't want that health care reform. maybe we didn't want this stimulus kind of stuff. do you think that there's a misinterpretation of the message here that democrats are just now catching up to? >> absolutely. i think you've been hearing that for over a year in some very tight democratic circles. there's no doubt about it. look at the situation september two quarters ago the fall of the markets. it really drove the last part. republicans never recovered from that. you're right it wasn't republican administration. the benefit of the doubt on the economy went to the democrats. tends to go the democrats. i think because now because of lack of support. >> kiki was shake being her head. i'll let you respond. that was a tough question. i think what the polling shows in your own poll is that people aren't fighting obama on this. but obama has done what he said he would do as a candidate. what i think it demonstrates is a complete frustration with the joblessness that's going on. they want somebody to take

control of this and move it forward. that's why i think these races become very localized. they want to hear from candidate. do you want to elect somebody perhaps and frequently a republican who will go back to policies that got us in the economic condition that's really kicked off bottom as presidency. it was the bush economy and the republican or are you going to vote for somebody to fight for economic growth and opportunity. that's where the positions become very localized. >> very quickly. >> we'll have you back, you are looking great. thank you for joining us. labor day, have a good day no matter which side of the aisle you are on. cnn has complete coverage of the primaries as we get closer to november. on air, online, cnn.com/politics. we've got the best political team to break down the issues, races, analysis, that's cnn.com/politics. drew, thanks. hurricane earl is gone, but there's a new system developing in the gulf. reynolds wolf is tracking all of it for us. we'll get a tropical weather

update still ahead. it is 50 minutes past the hour.

welcome back to cnn "american morning." meet tropical storm hermine. this thing is on the move. now, where it is going, according to the latest forecast path from the national hurricane

center, it is going to travel to the north/northwest and eventually making landfall. somewhere between the u.s. border and possibly south into mexico making landfall early on tuesday. one thing the storm has, two things, actually, very warm water and minimal sheer, so it will strengthen. what it doesn't have is time. if it was to stay in the gulf, it could become a hurricane, but that shouldn't be in the cards. what we have in the cards today is beautiful weather for a third of the nation. beautiful conditions for the southeast, but when you get back to portions of the midwest, that's when things get interesting. a chance for severe storms and then possibly up into the central and northern rockies snow falling into the highest peaks of yellowstone national park or glacier national park. scattered showers are possible in portions of the gulf coast. in terms of your high temperatures, it is going to be steamy in dallas and houston. highs in dallas going to 94 degrees. 92 in kansas city. 73 in minneapolis. back to salt lake city, 78

degrees. 105 in phoenix. back to new york we go, 82 degrees is the expected high by the afternoon. that's a wrap on your forecast. we'll have more coming up on cnn "american morning" in a few. there's new motrin pm. no other medicine, not even advil pm, is more effective for pain and sleeplessness. new motrin pm. there's no way to hide it. sir, have you been drinking tonight? if you ride drunk, you will get caught... and you will get arrested.

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call or click today. good morning to you. 8:00 here in new york on this labor day monday. it is september 6. if you are working, hats off to you. if you are home, that's good too. >> i hope you are having a cup of coffee with the kids, working through the crossword puzzle. we have a lot to get to. president obama will be focused like a laser on your economy. he hits the road today to outline new proposals to boost the economy and pump up

democratic candidates. ed henry with details at the white house. and nato is considering a plan to send in 2,000 additional troops to afghanistan. many of them likely to be americans. general david petraeus proposed the move to nato officials. it calls for 750 military personnel to train afghan forces. plus, the end of summer ringing in the start of the election season, whether you want it or not, here it comes. critical races coast to coast could drastically change the balance of power in that building. cnn's later numbers show the democrats losing voter support. we'll break it down with the best political team on television. and a national political correspondent with "the new york times" is going to join us later on. and the am fix blog is up and running. go to cnn.com/amfix. let's begin with where we started up first with the election coverage this fall. the fallout could have huge consequences for all of us, our

taxes, health care, everything. so that's why we are starting with it. >> eight weeks until the midterm elections with a lot at stake. 37 seats up for grabs in the senate this november. in the house, every seat up for grabs. 435 of them in the hands of voters. and republicans are looking to take control. there's a new cnn research corporation poll that's just been released this morning. it shows the gop has a seven-point advantage on the generic ballot question, who would you vote for, the republican or the democrat. they are leading by seven points. >> kiran, 87% of us believe the economy is in rough shape. we have the best political team on television covering it all. one member of the team, ed henry. the president is focusing on the economy and he'll be ratcheting it up this week. >> the president is delivering a labor day speech in milwaukee today and then he talks about his new plan to spur the economy and to create more jobs. he'll be unveiling that in the

crucial swing state of ohio wednesday. ed is at the white house for thus morning with a preview. as we talked about, most people are focused on the economy. now we are going to hear about a plan to try to turn things around from the white house. >> reporter: that's right, kiran. we have new information from the last few moments about what the president is going to talk about in milwaukee. he'll announce more details about more infrastructure spending, specifically trying to bolster the nation's roadways, railways, runways as well. part of that proposal we are told by a white house official will be announcement of creation of a new infrastructure bank. we have to get more details on this, but basically the white house claims this would be a way to better use and utilize some of the federal dollars pouring in from all kinds of accounts to build roads, et cetera. try to create jobs around the country. then on wednesday the president will be in cleveland giving another speech. we are told by a white house aid the president at that speech will roll out 100 billion dollar

plans with a tax credit for businesses, trying to encourage economies to invest in more employees, more equipment, et cetera. all trying to spur the economy, something the democratic party chairman tim kaine was talking about yesterday in the sunday shows. >> the president and his team will be focusing on jobs, but as we are adding private sector jobs every month, we have to focus on things that will continue that. >> the democratic strategy has been and it is going to be discussed in more detail later. let's target the tax credits to middle class folks and to small businesses. >> but targeting tax credits, infrastructure spending, these are things the american people have heard before, specifically in the first 100 days of the administration. these were key ingredients of the $787 billion same bus project. and two years later a lot of americans felt like it just didn't pan out. >> and i want to ask you, the president got more tough

criticism over the weekend from those who are somewhat sittheftic to his cause. certainly liberals, paul crudeman and tom friedman who say that obama has had no vision. has there been any reaction to that from the white house, that he's kind of like waffling, that he's runnerless in the white house? >> reporter: well, they have not replied directly to that. but i saw frank rich who said the president has become tone deaf on these issues. there's criticism coming from the left, not just the right. look at the recent poll numbers we've got to give you an idea of why there's anger across the board. specifically on the economy. the new cnn research poll, what do you think about economic conditions today? 18% say it is good, 81% say it is poor. the other poll asking people specifically about current economic conditions compared to two years ago. bad or worse, 49%. better now but to get worse, 18%. better now and to stay that way,

32%. the biggest number at 49% saying it is bad or worse than it was two years ago. he had the giant stimulus package in between. over the course of the last two years, money is being spent out, kicked out across the country. it was supposed to kick start the economy. they were calling the recovery here at the white house, but it has not panned out. that's worrisome for democrats two months before the midterm elections. >> it will be interesting because there was a little bit of a back and forth, robert gibbs, the white house press secretary calling hits from the professional level, that's what we heard this weekend talking to crudeman, friedman and others. maybe they need to get drug tested if they don't believe we have done what we were supposed to do here. >> reporter: he walked back the comments from a few weeks ago. the white house didn't want a pick a fight with those on the left, but now you are seeing people on the left, as we get closer to the election the stakes get higher and higher, there's real frustration on the left with missed opportunity that is the president is not capitalizing on. >> ed henry, thank you so much.

a major battleground will be across what has been known as america's rust field. a lot of blue collar workers have seen manufacturing jobs disappear. t.j. holmes is there in pittsburgh, pennsylvania, with a cnn election express talking to voters there this morning. and t.j., the president is not on the ballot. there's a lot of individual races that are. that's what you are out there trying to find out, which way the voters are going to swing on this thing. >> yes, so many of the races are, in fact, local. politics is all local, and that's how republicans would like it to be, and democrats as well, but for different reasons here in pennsylvania, it sounds good. pennsylvania where i am, their unemployment rate has been below the national average for the past year. but the problem is the unemployment rate here has actually gone up a full percentage point over the last year while the national average has been flat or has been going down over the past year. so this state is going the wrong

direction. republicans eyeing the house of representatives and taking that house back. how are they going to do it? with races like the one we have here in western pennsylvania, specifically the third district, they think there's a vulnerable seat there. and you can't get any more vulnerable than being a freshman democrat in a republican leaning district. listen to the two candidates. >> i think the voters of the district should re-elect me because i'm working every day for them. when i'm in this office, i'm a person of high integrity. i'm honest. >> why would you vote for me and not the current congresswoman? everything i say i've done. everything i say i mean. and i think over the period now of the last 20 months we have seen a complete separation from where you came from as to where you are now. >> reporter: now, you hear the candidates there, and it might sound familiar, you hear them talking about that all the time, but we keep in mind here that we are on the election express bus. we are going to make it our key to not talk so much to

politicians. you hear so much from them, but from real folks out there. guys, we are talking about labor day. this is a day people are celebrating, time with family, and a lot of people have a day off, but there are a lot of people who have today off, they had yesterday off, the past two months or six months off, they wish they had a job right now and just don't. that's why the economy will be top of mind for everyone in this election cycle. >> i used to work in erie, pennsylvania, not far from pittsburgh, and there were a lot of industries that sort of drove the economy there. do they take exception to being called the rust belt in the place that sort of symbolizes what used to be, or is there hope that there will be a turn around and that jobs are going to come from other industries eventually? >> reporter: you know, that's the coolest thing about being out and on the road is that you get to talk to the folks. no matter how discouraging it can feel for us covering this day in and day out, we are talking politics and politics

and going back and forth, it feels disheart anything like you are getting nothing done, but these folks feel great about their situation and the hard work they are doing even though they are turned off by what washington is doing. yes, they feel just fine if you will. they are not happy about things, but they are going to keep doing their thing here in pittsburgh, western pennsylvania and across the entire state. listen to two ladies now as they went back and forth. we talked to them locally. they are going back and forth. they have the same concerns, but they don't necessarily agree on how we should get to that end goal. take a listen. >> they are wanting to put government out of their life. we don't want government in our life. turn in your social security check. turn in your medicare because it is government that got it for you. >> they just don't think that the people in washington are listening to them. >> their purpose at this point is to make our administration look bad. >> people need to have hope and

they need to have the ability to go out and get a job. and their frightened. >> some of them are not hindsighted or farsighted enough to realize why we are in the position we are in. everybody said, don't blame bush, who else is there to blame? >> they are taking the people's money, but in all honesty, the people could spend better themselves. >> their purpose is not our country. their purpose is politics. >> this is the first year that the recurring theme of what people are telling us is that they are really scared to death. >> reporter: so kiran and drew, you all hear the same kind of debates you hear in washington, but certainly a different tone out here. folks will keep on keeping on whether they are working two jobs like a guy i talked to yesterday is doing. they will hold on and keep pushing no matter what washington does, quite frankly, but they could certainly use help from washington. >> t.j. for us this morning in

pittsburgh. you are going to be on the road for a while checking in with people. thank you so much. >> stay with "american morning" all week. we'll break down the races with the best political team on television. tomorrow they are all going to columbus, ohio. and wednesday they set up shop in covington, kentucky. thursday, indianapolis. more coverage from t.j., of course, and along with him, the cast right here, john king, dana bash, jessica yellin and gloria borger. sources are telling barbara star at the pentagon that as many as 2,000 additional troops could be headed to afghanistan. we'll see what this may be all about. she'll check in with us live in a moment. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 what if every atm was free? tdd# 1-800-345-2550 no more $2, $3 fees. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 no more paying to access your own money. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 it'd be like every atm in the world was your atm. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 the schwab bank high yield investor checking(tm) account. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 zero atm fees.

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we have some developing news for you coming to us from afghanistan. cnn is learning that general david pate petraeus wants more boots on the ground. >> we go to barbara starr now. we just got the 30,000 troop boost. now they want 2,000 more troops? >> reporter: general david petraeus is saying inside his own command in afghanistan he needs more 2,000 troops. what is this all about? it is going to be about 750

troops to help train afghan forces. and the balance of that 2,000 is likely to be troop that is specialize in hunting down and dealing with roadside bombs, those improvised explosive devices that remain the number one threat to u.s. troops on the ground. but the question everybody wants to know, of course, is 2,000 more troops, does that necessarily mean more u.s. troops? well, it is impossible to answer right now. nato is looking at all of this. inside nato there's talk that european countries may not contribute very much. and it could mean a significant number of additional u.s. forces spending the coming holiday season in the war zone, but it is just impossible to predict right now how many until the europeans decide if they are going to contribute to this new troop requirement. >> barbara, on that topic, he's calling for very specific people. do the european troops or the nato troops have what he needs

or is this going to be u.s. troops? >> reporter: frankly, i talked to a senior nato official yesterday who said, look, it is very likely it is going to mean additional u.s. forces. a number of european governments are politically ambivalent about the war, not necessarily willing to send more troops, and they don't have the capability for the ied units that the u.s. army and the u.s. marine corps does, so they are looking at the possibility of more u.s. troops. the big question is whether it is going to bust president obama's 30,000 cap, the surge kiran just talked about that is just really getting on the ground. of course, will this be it or will we see the need for more troops every six months or so. >> a lot of big questions there. barbara starr for us, thanks. well, still ahead, we'll check in with biloxi mayor a.j. holloway. he's taking a nearly $90,000 pay cut. he says he wants to help his

struggling mississippi city and perhaps he's asking others to follow suit, not necessarily with pay cuts but making some changes to benefit the city as a whole. we'll talk to the mayor in just a moment. what i wouldn't do for a do-over. [ female announcer ] neutrogena® clinical skincare, exclusive ion2 complex combined with activating cream helps restore collagen depleted skin. neutrogena clinical skincare is clinically tested to undo the look of a year's worth of skin aging in just 4 weeks. do-overs do exist. [ female announcer ] clinical skincare. neutrogena. #1 dermatologist recommended brand.

22 minutes past the hour right now. welcome back to the most news in the morning. how many people do you know who would voluntarily say cut my pay by a lot? our next guest did that. mayor a.j. holloway is in charge of the city, biloxbiloxi, mississippi. mr. mayor, thank you for being with us this morning. >> thank you. >> so you took a nearly $90,000 pay, you went from $115,000 a year to $27,000. not many people would do that. why did you? >> well, you know, i don't know. i took a pay cut. now i'm working on the holiday. i must not be too smart. >> well, that's one of the things that a lot of us with talking about on the labor day, a lot of people are probably happy to be working as we look

at unemployment high nationally. you have a big budget deficit you are trying to fill, what was the reason for account you cutting your pay substantially? >> well, i put a good amount of time in the state retirement system, so there's a program in mississippi when you can take your retirement and still keep your job. you just have to take less pay. so it is a little sacrifice, but it is not everything. >> so you are going to be drawing from the retirement benefits in addition to the $27,000, but is it going to change the way that you live? >> no, it will not change the way i live. i don't live extravagant anyway, you know. i am a pretty conservative guy. >> so i understand that you have been talking about this proposal, you are going to present it to the members of the city council as well. some of the other things you are

talking about to fit the $6 million budget gap is to possibly ask some employees to the city to pay more when it comes to their health benefits. right now they are covered 100%, right? >> yes, that's correct. we are proposing that, we put that on the table a couple times already. it has been shot down by the city council, but i think that they are going to come up with somebody maybe that is a compromise on that that we can live with. we are looking at several things. we have given a lot of pay raises and benefits over the years, and we are just going to look at that. we are not going to be able to do that in the next foreseeable future. >> now, your city really turned things around with the approval of the casinos. it became a very popular tourist destination. a lot of people going there to not only enjoy the beauty but also to gamble. how much of a hit have you seen over the years with the economic downturn? >> we have been hit pretty good.

our sales tax is down, our gaming tax has been down, our property tax has been down. we have not recovered from katrina yet. we still have a lot of businesses out of business along the beach front with the hotels and motels and restaurants. very few of them are back. some of the little mom and pop motels are building back right now, but it is taking a big hit from katrina and the downturn of the economy and then the oil spill in the gulf. it has been one thing after another. and the next thing we are looking for is an earthquake. >> well, hopefully that's not the case, but is there anything in the pipeline that can turn things around for your city? >> well, you know, we are hoping that the economy will continue to improve. we have jobs that are hard to get right now. we have been fortunate with the oil.

we didn't get any oil on our beaches or didn't have to close any of our beaches or the water. our seafood is still good to eat, shrimp and the fish that we get out of the gulf here have not been tainted by any oil spill. so that's looking good for us. and things will change, it will just take a little time. we have to watch the budget so we don't come into a deficit next year. if we don't do something, some of the ideas that we put before the city council will be in bad shape at the end of this coming physical year. >> well, you're certainly trying to put your money where your mouth is willing to take a pay cut to show that you'll reign it in personally. i wish you the best of luck. this is something cities across the country are going through. thank you for your time and happy labor day. >> thank you. same thing to you. we are going to take a quick break. your top stories are coming up. it is 26 minutes after the hour. . the hundred thousand mile powertrain warranty

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do you like that song? >> it takes me a good 45 minutes to get the tune. i'm not good at name that tune. it is 29 minutes past the hour right now. we are bringing you an am original. that's all right. if you stick around long enough, you will hear the songs repeat and then be able to memorize them. you will get them like that. >> i don't think i'll be sticking around. this labor day means the unofficial end to summer, but we are kicking off the official beginning of the political season with the new series make room for the tea party.

>> john, i'm in subbing for those of you new to "american morning." the latest cnn research corporation poll shows voters are mixed on the political movement. 40% say they have a negative opinion of the tea party. 36% a positive view. today we'll look at a big gamble in nevada. jim acosta is joining us live with this story of the tea party there. jim? >> reporter: good morning, drew. good morning, kiran. there's no doubt the tea party is on a role. we have been talking about this for a year now. tea-party backed candidates are racking up the huge wins in republican primaries, but there's one big question facing the political movement, and that's whether the tea party contenders are too conservative to beat their democratic opponents. it is a question that dogged the campaign of nevada's sharon angle. sharron angle could be the tea

party's biggest gamble yet. a former lawmaker in nevada and a grandmother who doesn't mind hopping on the back of the harley and who has a tendency to shoot from the lip. >> he's been waterboarding our economy for over a year now. >> reporter: with rhetoric like that, angle came out of nowhere and snatched up the endorsement of tea party leaders and one in the race for the u.s. senate. her next opponent, the gop's prime target. >> actually, i would like to dub him. >> reporter: one of the most powerful democrats in washington, senate majority leader harry reid. will you be a tea party senator in the senate if you get in there? >> i don't know exactly what that means. i'll be a mainstream senator, house that? >> but democrats say angle is far from mainstream pointing to her past calling to reduce the size of the federal government by getting rid of the departments of education and energy, the epa and the irs. he's or she's also made comments on talk radio. >> if congress keeps going the

way it is, people are really looking toward the second amendment remedies. they're saying, my goodness, what can we do to turn this country around. and i'll tell you, the first thing we need to do is take harry reid out. >> reporter: what was that about? >> those are not the issues people are concerned about, they are concerned about our homes, our economy, our jobs. that's what they are concerned about. >> reporter: in another interview she agreed there are domestic enemies in the government. >> we have home born, home grown enemies in our system. and i think we have some of those enemies in our own walls of the senate and the congress. >> yes, i think you are right, bill. >> reporter: do you feel there are domestic enemies in the congress? >> the larger focus of that conversation was what has happened domestically here in our country for the last 18 months. >> reporter: do you feel that the president or harry reid are enemies of the state? >> i don't think anybody mentioned any names during that conversation. of course, those were my words. >> reporter: those are the policies you were talking about.

>> those weren't my words. >> reporter: angle's comments on social security now star in reid's ads. she accused him of taking her out of context. >> as we are conversationally speaking, sometimes when you pick out words, they are not the best words that you could have used. >> reporter: but many in her own party worry she's a risky bet. 71% of nevada republicans prefer a different candidate. good thing for angle says john roll steen, reid is unpopular. >> there's hardened opposition to him. i think sharron angle could be arrested on a felony tomorrow and still get 40% of the vote. >> reporter: we also caught up to harry reid. she says a lot of what she said was taken out of context. what is your response to that?

>> it is a little hard to take out of context when somebody says they want to phase out social security and get rid of medicare. her words are what she is. my words are what i am, so i don't think you run from what you say and what you do. >> reporter: a political wild car in the tea party's rise to power, sharron angle has two more months to convince voters to deal her in. angle's campaign has spent the last couple months trying to soften her image. they show her support for social security and she's spending a lot of times meeting with veterans groups, but make no mistake out of all the republicans running for the u.s. senate in nevada this year in the primary battle that wrapped up over the summer, harry reid's campaign like sharron angle the most for all the reasons we laid now the piece. >> it will be interesting to see how that plays out since neither one of them are extremely popular in their state. thank you, jim. tomorrow jim will be back with part two of our series as we head to utah for a look at candidate mike lee. lee isn't compromises on his

conservative views. we'll examine the race and the tea party platform and what it could mean for fall elections. 4 minutes past the hour. time for the top stories. politics, the economy, colliding on labor day. president obama is going to wisconsin later today to stump for democratic candidates and call for new investments in infrastructure. the president will focus on the economy all this week unveiling his plan to create more jobs. a new cnn poll shows eight out of ten americans believe economic conditions are indeed poor. night toe is considering a plan to send another 2,000 troops to afghanistan, many of them would likely be americans. general david petraeus reportedly proposed to the move to nato officials to call for 750 military personnel alone just training afghan forces. and thousands of indonesians protesting peacefully this weekend outside the u.s. embassy in jakarta. they are upset about a florida's

church's plan to burn the koran. the event is being organized to mark the anniversary of the september 11th attacks. for months we have been following randy shorter as he begins his third tour of duty overseas. we have been on the ground with him as his unit moved into the forward operating base their staying at in afghanistan. >> he's a look at what his new unit is up against when they head outside the wire. we'll go live to jason carroll in afghanistan. jason, hi. >> reporter: and hello to you, drew and kiran. good to hear your voices. for sergeant shorter and the rest of the men in his unit, they have been anxious to get out there and start their mission and do their jobs. they finally had the opportunity to do their job. part of that job includes getting out there and interacting with the afghan people. that includes doing it in small

villages and more populated areas. the ration nail is the more opportunity that u.s. forces have to interact with afghan people the more opportunities they have to hear what their security concerns are and what their needs are. perhaps there will be less of a chance that the local people will then turn to the taliban for their needs. that's just part of what their mission is. another part of the mission is to train the afghan army and train the afghan police to get up to speed to secure the region on their own and to take the lead in that regard. we had an opportunity to patrol an area with sergeant shorter not too long ago. it was an area that is what is called a green area, but as sergeant shorter and the other folks here on the ground will tell you, in this particular region you can never be sure if an area is secure. >> we were coming in kind of like, hey, we are prepared for the worst. you can't get complacent like that. this is what you need to do when

maneuvering around the area. you need to have eyes everywhere if possible. you want to spread them out as far as possible. if somebody tries to do anything, at least we'll know ahead of time. >> reporter: in assessing what i have been able to look at and just my point of vow view in looking, it seems like the afghan police need a lot of work. >> in a lot of ways they do. you just got to have high spirits and believe that they will be able to at one point take over the country and be able to establish a government. then they can sustain peace and sustain the violence going on here, but it is going to take time. it is going to take time. we are making progress, so that's good. >> reporter: every step. >> one step at a time. you just got to believe in it, that's all.

>> reporter: and just a bit of a security update for you guys, just a few miles from the operating base where we are right now, an ied was detonated a few miles from here. and also we had an opportunity to explore the bizarre area just outside these walls. this is an area where the locals sell various goods and things like that. it was a little tense, but we were able to walk through the area with military police to show some sort of a perception when we were there. last night we were hearing there was a riot in the particular area because some of the locals got upset that a young man was arrested for being allegedly connected with the taliban. so it shows you how things can change very quickly. drew? kiran? >> that's amazing you are getting a firsthand look at that. how dangerous and precarious the pieces are in the area. thank you, jason. we are talking about politics. you want to know how bad things

are for democrats? there's a triage plan outlined by nancy pelosi. perfect at forget about the dead candidates, we are focusing on the ones that have a chance in november. pour your money into them. we'll talk about it with a guy who wrote that with "the new york times." he's right after this break. my joints ache so bad, i wake up in pain every day. i want to know why. i want to know why my hair is falling out. how did this happen? how did this happen?

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43 minutes past the hour right now. it is the unofficial end of summer, but it is also the unofficial start of the fall election campaigns. and poms show democrats certainly have a lot of ground to cover to keep their majority. if you take a look at the choice for congress, this is a generic republican against a generic democrat. this is polling done every year. 52% republican, 45% democrat. the republicans have a seven-point advantage over the democrates. our poll is showing that 81% of voters say our economy is in bad shape. for more, let's bring in jeff

zellany, a national correspondent for "the new york times." you wrote a piece that makes me tell you that the democrats are in a true tail spin. when you are talking about a triage kind of approach, it is not about survival. i mean, it is about survival for the democrats, not necessarily about winning in november. >> well, i think those things are linked hand in hand. if they are going to win, the democratic leaders in washington realize they have to trim the field a little bit. in some respects it is a story of their own success. over the last two section ike cycles, democrats picked up 55 seats in districts that normally are held by republicans. they know that a lot of these are not going to stay in democratic hands. so at this point 60 days out, they view the only way to hold their majority, they know it will be a very small majority if they do at all, is to throw some of the people overboard, if you will, and to focus on races they can win. >> right, not pouring money into some of those that are losing

propositions. but it is interesting, you wrote about the urgent call to action from house speaker nancy pelosi to democrats. coughing up money to help others, not being late on paying their party dues, but she also wrote, we need to know your commitment according to your article in a private letter, demanding they call her within 72 hours to explain how they land to help. and she added, the day after the election we don't want to have any regrets. is this par for the course or does this reflect a different type of intensity and perhaps panic on the part of the majority party? >> without a doubt, it expresses a sense of urgency. speaker pelosi is trying to make clear to her members, as if they haven't already gotten the point across at this point, that the majority is being threatened. people who are a committee chairman or vice chairman won't have leadership positions, so she's trying to make clear to

them they need to step up and do what they can. one thing that really has frustrated speaker pelosi i'm told by her advisers is that republicans have been contributing more moneyed in republican members iffer the national congressional campaign committee for their internal things. democrats have not stepped town the plate as much. obvious, a lot of the democrats want to hold on to their money to protect themselves in their district, but her letter that we saw a copy of last week was sent mainly with safe democrats in mind. some -- at least 100 democrats, more than 100 democrats have safe seats, and they are holding $218 million in their bank accounts. she's urging hem them to step up a bit and help some of the other endangered democrats in seats across the country. what they are really worried about is sort of not the frontline of democrats who perhaps are freshman or come from conservative districts, what they are worried about is

is the wave going to go farther into the democratic caucus? are there going to be democrats who we thought were fine that suddenly are not fine. they want more money to stop the wave, but those tv ads are not everything. >> what are the tv ads going to say because a lot of the democrats will tell you they were dragged along on some of the legislation that is now seeming so unpopular or so not working towards getting a fix in the economy. i got to wonder, even if the democrats do retain control of the house, is speaker pelosi's chair in jeopardy? >> i don't think speaker pelosi is in jeopardy. there's no one to emerge from the ranks to challenge her. but what these ads are saying are -- in many respects, they are not talking about their accomplishments or legislation at all. the democrats are doing a defensive strategy district by district. they are going hard after their republican opponents on local issues. they are trying to individualize

the races. some examples are a congressman, a republican kantd candidate in ohio has not paid his taxes. that's annish shoo issue. a very big campaign seems to actually be boiled down to very small issues in a lot of the television adds. >> it is getting more negative as we get closer. you talked about district that is never got this nasty in terms of campaigning back and forth that are turning sharply negative in part reflecting how desperately the incumbents want to hold on to their seats. >> in many respects, it is all they have left. the democrats want more money and the reason pilosi wants more money is to define some of the republican candidates. as jim acosta's party mentioned earlier, there are tea party candidates in house races, the democrats are trying to define them as extreme, and they need money to do that. in 2006 if we can remember when

democrats won control of the house, republicans had a money advantage. republicans had more money. so having more money, being on tv does not necessarily mean you are going to hold your majority. >> jeff, thank you for joining us on this labor day. appreciate you coming in. >> thank you. >> good to have you. cnn has complete coverage of the primaries as we get closer to november on air, online, cnn.com/politics. we have the best political team to break down the issues, the races and of course, good analysis as well. cnn.com/politics. and we'll be right back talking about whether there's trouble in the gulf. reynolds wolf will have that next. eumatoid arthritis going? they're discovering the first self-injectable ra medicine you take just once a month. it's simponi™, and taken with methotrexate, it helps relieve the pain, stiffness, and swelling of ra with one dose a month. visit 4simponi.com to see if you qualify for a full year of cost support. simponi™ can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis.

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welcome back to cnn "american morning." i'm reynold wolf. this is the latest we have for you from the gulf of mexico. tropical storm hermine is gaining strength. winds are at 45. gusts town 50 miles an hour. this storm is on the move. the question is, where is it headed? the latest we have from the national hurricane center is saying it is going to the northwest possibly making landfall south of texas in mexico early on tuesday with winds of 60, gusts up to 70. thankfully, it won't be out in the gulf for too long. if it were, we may be talking about a hurricane, but i don't think that will happen. but this should be a rainmaker for much of texas, especially central and south texas. there's the threat of flooding in the coming days. today we have the threat of flooding across the midwest and the portions of the great lakes.

we have moisture coming in from the gulf of mexico. that combination combined with daytime heating could give you strong storms, possible delays in places like chicago, perhaps even into st. louis before the day is out. meanwhile, back across parts of the central and northern rockies, we are not talking about rain, we are talking about the possibility of snow. more on that throughout the morning. enjoy your day. it should be beautiful out there with highs in the 80s for the northeast. you are watching cnn "american morning." ice 1) we've detected an anomaly... (voice 2) how bad is it? (voice 1) traffic's off the chart... (voice 2) they're pinging more targets... (voice 3) isolate... prevent damage... (voice 2) got 'em. (voice 3) great exercise guys. let's run it again.

he is known for the bump shots. it is a different thing every day, but look at that? he's on the phone now. >> welcome back to the most news in the morning. >> that's right. actually, he may be calling for a happy meal. it may look just like the one you bought yesterday. how about a 12-year-old mcdonald's hamburger? they claim it will look the same as what you just bought. >> according to unscientific research most likely done by people who don't like fast food,

mcdonald's food sunt doesn't seem to decay. one expert attributes it to them being high in fat, which means they are low in moisture leaving less room for mold to grow. ape all the salt helps to preserve the food. >> if you eat all that stuff, there's nothing to get you sick. >> let's go right after the show. >> three minutes until the top of the hour. as a manager, my team counts on me to stay focused.

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